Recovering from a bad .bin upload?

SMOKINV8
06-21-2006, 09:16 AM
Okay, here's the long and the short of it. I was going to help a buddy get rid of the "Stall wall" on his 94 Z28 and reflash his PCM with a .bin I edited in Tunerpro. (I don't normally mess with LT1's, so I didn't really want to invest much money into this, but I still wanted to help the guy out.) I used the EE definition with Tunerpro, which I understand is the correct definition file. I uploaded the file with the Tunercat trial version of WinFlash, or whatever its called, I don't have my laptop with me to check.

After uploading the .bin file, the fans came on and would not shut off. We waited a few minutes hoping it was just finishing the upload cycle, but they never did shut off. We turned off the key and attempted to start the car, and it did start. Only problems were it wouldn't really stay running, the fans were on, and the SES light was flashing very rapidly.

So, since there was no power interruptions that would have feasibly damaged the PCM during the file transfer, the only thing I can think of that might have happened is the definition file I used was flawed, and the PCM doesn't like the bin file. So how do I completely reset the PCM so I can upload the old tune back into it?

Any help here is greatly appreciated, as you guys can imagine I feel kind of like an ass about this.

madwolf
06-22-2006, 03:49 PM
Disconnect the negative battery terminal for a few minutes. If that doesn't work, the PCM will need to be repaired.
Unfortunately, helping out friends with things as sensitive as this isn't such a good idea.

SMOKINV8
06-24-2006, 08:12 AM
Disconnect the negative battery terminal for a few minutes. If that doesn't work, the PCM will need to be repaired.
Tried that right after it happened without any luck. Bit the bullet and replaced the PCM and all was fine. Either the definition file I got from moates.net wasn't good or something unforeseen happened power wise during the upload.

Unfortunately, helping out friends with things as sensitive as this isn't such a good idea.
This little extra comment really wasn't needed. I've seen the same thing happen to yourself first hand, so save your attitude for somebody else. :mad:

madwolf
06-24-2006, 08:35 AM
No need to get all defensive. ;)
I was referencing myself back in the days when I was in the same boat AND couldn't fix them yet. I still keep spares of models I cannot fix.

SMOKINV8
06-24-2006, 10:39 AM
Understandable. I just don't think you'd consider what you've turned your mistakes into as, "Not such a good idea." That's how we learn (;)), its just nice to be able to learn from others if you can.

Blownbird355
06-25-2006, 02:44 AM
Whats the stall wall? Also I think he means that helping a friend can lead to these type of things no matter how prepared you are. I did the the same thing for a frien and ended in the same boat. It's not a good feeling. I even trird the fix and almost jacked his pcb up. But someone was able to fix it.

Bill_Mitchell
06-28-2006, 10:06 AM
I'm always helping friends. I love to do for those who can't but nine times out of ten it ends up costing me. I still do it but I live by the title.

Bill Mitchell

SMOKINV8
06-28-2006, 11:50 AM
The stall wall is the issue with OBDI cars that won't shift properly when launching at the track with a big(ger) stall converter. I believe the consensus was converters over 3200RPM tend to cause the problem.

As I'm sure you would find if you search, 90% of the time the problem is fixed by setting the hot kickdown threshold mph to a very low mph, and using the hot kickdown threshold RPM to set your actual shiftpoints.